


A Queen's Prerogative

by hiddencait



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Black Jewels Fusion, F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-16 07:22:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7257988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiddencait/pseuds/hiddencait
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Queen and her trusted friend debate the fate of another young witch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Queen's Prerogative

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tielan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/gifts).



> Black Jewels Verse AUs are one of my very favorite AUs to read and write, but they are so incredibly rare to come across. I hope my giftee enjoys this glimpse into one! 
> 
> BTW, I also worked into a couple of my giftee's other requests with Canon AU - Pepper Keeps Extremis (though adjusted for the Black Jewels verse, and to a lesser extent Wingfic with Maria as an Eyrien warrior. Hopefully they blended as well as I wanted them to.

“Tony’s wrong about this,” Maria said, unable to keep the thought leashed behind her teeth. 

Beside her, her Queen sighed, Pepper’s voice just shy of exasperated when she spoke. “He is from time to time.”

“But especially now,” Maria insisted wryly, staring through the Red Jeweled shield Lord Stark had placed around the bedroom where a young witch and her brother were being held. As ‘guests,’ though all parties knew it was merely a kinder way of saying ‘prisoner.’ “They’re already predisposed to dislike him – you’d think he’d realize keeping them locked up wouldn’t help matters.”

“Thus the reason he placed the shield. Simply add the anger to his account instead of one of ours.” Pepper shrugged. “Tony felt it was his task to do.”

It was the least he could do in Maria’s, though she kept a tight rein on the thought so as not to distress her Queen. Everyone had handled Pepper’s transformation differently; unfortunately, Prince Stark’s preferred method was avoiding the issue and internalizing guilt that the situation had happened at all. 

Foolish, really. No one could have ever guessed a mere Yellow Jeweled Blood male to have both the ambition and the craft capable of creating the Extremis spell. When Aldrich Killian had appeared to the public in his new persona as the Opal Jeweled Warlord Prince Lord Mandarin, most had been shocked and appalled by his sheer gall at descending farther than his Offering to the Darkness had granted him. 

More still had been cut down, murdered by the other poor souls he’d tested the spell on first. 

That he’d been twisted enough to force the spell upon Pepper in hopes of binding her to him as Queen to his Consort, well no one could have expected that, either. Nor would most have expected Pepper capable of executing him before he used the spell on anyone else.

Maria was one of the few unsurprised by Pepper’s fortitude. It was one of the reasons she was now First Circle.

In the aftermath, Pepper’s new strength and caste threw those living within Shield Province into a tizzy. While a court had formed around her with Warlord Prince Fury as her Steward and Prince Rhodes as her Master of the Guard, her lover had chosen to seek a cure instead of taking his place as her Consort. 

He was still searching, convinced he was at fault for allowing her to come to harm.

Maria and Pepper were in agreement in their exasperation with his overdeveloped sense of guilt. In the meantime, Warlord Prince Steven Rodgers served as Pepper’s First Escort, a role which occasionally set Maria’s stomach churning slightly for reasons she didn’t have the time to deal with. There were more important matters to attend to at Pepper’s side.

An unassuming, if utterly competent, Opal Jeweled hearth witch was now a Queen. Pepper still wore the Opal, or something like an Opal Jewel. Though she had not descended further, her Jewel had shifted, deepened, and gained a heat unlike any Jewel seen before or since. Some were calling it a Fire Opal – a poetic reference to the embers that still sometimes burned beneath Pepper’s skin, but one somewhat less than effective in truly describing the strength of the Jewel. One of Tony’s allies, Prince Bruce Banner, wearer of the Green and Ebon Gray, and a young Purple Dusk Jeweled Healer, Jane Foster, had taken to studying the Jewel when Pepper allowed, but so far they’d discovered nothing definitive.

Maria doubted they would, honestly. Whatever the Mandarin had created, Pepper’s very nature had influenced the spell. She was one of a kind, therefore the Jewel was, as well.

Not that Maria had bothered to mention that viewpoint. It should be clear enough for those who paid attention, and those who didn’t weren’t worth wasting the time to explain herself. 

“What would you do?” Pepper asked, interrupting Maria’s reverie. Her eyes remained on the young woman, though the witch’s brother’s hovering form partially hid her from sight. 

Maria shrugged, her wings rustling idly at the movement. “I’d have killed her.” 

It was true, too. When the Maximoffs had attacked, Maria had been ready to throw all of the power behind her Gray Jewel into protecting her Queen and court, as well as the civilians in the crossfire. 

“That was then. I meant now,” Pepper corrected softly. “What would you do with these two now?”

Maria eyed the twins thoughtfully. “If you could be certain of their loyalty, they’d be an asset.”

“If. If not?” 

Maria kept her voice steady. “Then my answer would be the same as it was then. They cannot be allowed to threaten the court. But it is your decision, Pepper. You are Queen here.”

Pepper nodded, unsurprised by Maria’s answer. They’d known each other long enough that Maria doubted there were many people who could read her as well as her Queen could. Nor were there many who could read the Queen like Maria. She knew before Pepper spoke again what the verdict would be. “I want them for my Court. First Circle, if they’ll agree.”

It was the answer Maria had expected, the same one granted to Maria herself. Eyrien warriors were tempestuous enough that rarely were they trusted within the more ‘civilized’ courts, and the female who’d defied tradition to train with the males would be even less acceptable company. But Pepper had welcomed Maria warmly, embracing all that the Gray jeweled warrior was, contradictions, cold calculating tactician and all. 

There was a reason Pepper had Maria’s loyalty, as well as that of the rest of the rag-tag band of misfits that had formed into a court around her. 

It was the same reason the Maximoff twins would likely share that loyalty, as well. If given the option. 

“It won’t be a popular decision,” Maria said, not that Pepper was unaware. Memories were long among the Blood, and a Red jeweled Priestess would never be an easy addition to a court as far as the populace was concerned. And that was even if the Priestess in question hadn’t nearly decimated said populace.

But Wanda was young and carried her guilt over the part she and her brother had played in the near destruction of Sokovian Province like a mantle over her shoulders. Much like Prince Stark did, though with less flash. 

Maria didn’t doubt the twins would leap at the chance at redemption. 

No, it wouldn’t be a popular decision, but it was Pepper’s to make, her right as Queen. Her court, and even her Blood Triangle could only advise, never order.

Even her Consort, if Tony ever pulled his head out of his ass long enough to accept the ring, would bow to his Queen’s wishes. 

Pepper gave Maria a nod, and with a pulse of Gray Jeweled power, she dismantled Tony’s Red shield. The siblings looked up, startled but unafraid as Pepper glided into the room to seat herself between them. 

Maria settled into parade rest within the doorway, ready and waiting for the rest of the court, led by an irate Prince Stark to come rushing in at the discovery that the shield had been removed. Maria would deal with them as she always did, leaving her Queen the time she needed to begin the work of healing and guiding the twins to a place within her court.

Both women had their roles to play. Maria would give Pepper room to play hers.


End file.
